VEGA Welcomes New Member: SAVE Travel Alliance
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Other News
August 2009
The Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance welcomes its newest member, SAVE Travel Alliance (SAVE), an organization whose vision is "Connecting People to Places to do Good," linked to the global movement linking volunteerism with tourism. SAVE is an acronym for Scientific, Academic, Volunteer and Education Travel. The SAVE Travel Alliance management and operational activities are conducted on behalf of its founding members: George Washington University, National Geographic Society, Counterpart International and the Honduras Institute of Tourism.
The organization's focus is on implementing projects which connect volunteer sending and volunteer receiving organizations in order to further tourism's role in the international development sector as an effective tool to contribute to poverty alleviation and other aspects of the Millennium Development Goals. SAVE develops international volunteer programs that focus on tourism planning, policy and development at the destination level and capacity building at the firm level.
Below are a few examples of SAVE activities by country.
- Bulgaria: In Bulgaria, a SAVE Center is being developed in the Rhodope Mountains in cooperation with local authorities. The Center aims to connect the region to SAVE markets and contribute to the socio-economic development of the region. The project is funded through Innovation Norway and is implemented by the Bulgarian Heritage National Association.
- Dominican Republic: With the Tourism Cares Foundation, plans are underway to develop an industry sponsored volunteer "adopt a country" program to create a major project in the Puerto Plata area, modeled after the Tourism Cares volunteer programs in the US. In addition, SAVE is implementing a project with funding from the STARFISH Foundation, to provide technical assistance and ICT training to support donated computers.
- Indonesia: This is a skills transfer program in Way Kambas National Park, Lampung Province, Sumatra, where volunteers provide technical support and training with a focus on sales, reservations and product marketing to personnel of the Bali head office of Ecolodges Indonesia.
- Thailand: SAVE is recruiting volunteers to assist with community-based tourism development and English language training for periods of 4 weeks to 6 months on Koh Sukorn Island, South Andaman coast, Thailand.
- Southern Africa: This two year Ford Foundation funded project enables southern African countries to identify, document and integrate unique cultural resources into their heritage tourism strategies through the development of a Southern African Slave Wrecks and Heritage Route. This project will involve the African Diaspora Trail and National Association of Black Scuba Divers in volunteer activities.
- International Consulting Practicum: SAVE assists in developing international consulting assignments, involving graduate students from George Washington University's School of Business and local universities in countries such as Guatemala, Jamaica, Morocco, and Turkey. In many of these destinations, public and private institutions have benefited from the recommendations generated by the teams and have incorporated them in action plans and strategies.
SAVE also assists with arranging for USAID funded Global Sustainable Tourism Alliance (GSTA) volunteer assignments which range from 3-12 months in Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Montenegro, Ethiopia and Uganda.
Upcoming Activities
A case study of the valuation of SAVE's economic impact is being developed by Dr. Carol Kline at the University of North Carolina. This will include a previous study on the impact of SAVE created by volunteer organizational activities on Honduras' North Coast after hurricane Mitch. SAVE is also planning to convene a meeting of "Without Borders" volunteer groups in 2010 in order to explore their economic contributions and impacts.
Please refer to the SAVE web site for further details:
